Quick clear-up after train hits signal box

THIS week's derailment just outside Castleton station caused plenty of disruption to travellers, but hardly any damage.

WRECKAGE ... damage caused at Rochdale station 70 years ago when a carriage became derailed.

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THIS week's derailment just outside Castleton station caused plenty of disruption to travellers, but hardly any damage.

Seventy years ago, in May 1937, a crash just outside Rochdale station had completely the opposite effect - maximum damage, but hardly any disruption at all.

As this dramatic picture from our achives shows, there was very little left of the ground frame signal box at the station after an empty passenger coach left the rails.

In the accident, Mr W Horsley, a shunter, had a remarkable escape from injury. Shunting operations were being carried out shortly before eight o'clock one morning with empty passenger coaches when the rear wheels of one of the carriages became derailed.

The coach damaged a signal ladder and then crashed into the ground frame signal box which, as can be seen, completely disintegrated as if it had been hit by a bomb.

Mr Horsley, who was inside the cabin, saw the coach about to crash into it. He managed to keep clear of the wreckage and was able to get out of the way through a door.

A breakdown gang was summoned from Newton Heath, then one of the largest engine sheds in the Manchester area, but as the gang arrived at Rochdale a message was received that both main lines at Newhey, on what is now known as the Oldham Loop, had been fouled by two goods trucks leaving the rails.

The gang proceeded to Newhey and quickly replaced the wagons and then came back to Rochdale to clear the debris of the signal box from the line, just west of the station.

While the work at Newhey was being done, a bus service between Oldham, Shaw and Rochdale, was instituted, but so quickly was the line cleared that only one journey in each direction was necessary. In contrast, Tuesday's derailment at Castleton closed the line for more than 12 hours.